The light at the end of the tunnel is the onrushing train hurtling down the tracks at hundreds of players and their agents who, with each day that passes without a collective bargaining agreement between the league and PA, will have one less day in the forthcoming truncated off-season to understand the complex document and thus make informed decisions about their future.

With each day crossed off the calendar and with the NHL stubbornly fixated on opening training camps in mid-September, not only is pressure increasing on the players – many of whom face immediate decisions about placing their children in school and about buying or selling houses; in other words, where they and their families are actually going to live – but is the likelihood of chaos reigning whenever the league re-opens for business.

While sources from both camps believe it is quite possible that an agreement between their respective executive committees can be reached within the next 24-to-48 hours, a number of significant issues do remain unresolved, even after another lengthy session in New York yesterday.

As first reported by The Post on Saturday, the identifying, reporting and accounting of revenues to be included with the league gross designated for a percentage-split with the players remain an outstanding issues, as does finalizing the revenue-sharing program that will be part of the deal.

Issues concerning the individual maximum player contract, established at 20 percent of the cap, remain subjects of debate. The Post has learned from a source with close contact with the NHL executive committee that while a maxed-out contract can never decrease in value even if the cap does, there’s still discussion over whether a max contract might be negotiated to included increases in conjunction with a rising cap.

In other words, there’s a question whether a player could negotiate a contract with compensation established at a rolling 20 percent of the team cap – never to fall below the initial year’s salary – and without a designated dollar figure.

The Post has learned that there will be no legislated limit to the number of maximum-value contracts per team, nor will there be a legislated maximum length contract of any kind.

As well, players currently under contract whose post-rollback pay would be over the projected 2005-06 max of between $7.2-7.5M – e.g., Jaromir Jagr, $8.36M; Alexei Yashin, Nicklas Lidstrom and Keith Tkachuk at $7.6M – would be grandfathered into the agreement and face no further cutbacks for the duration of their deals.

Establishment of a new trade deadline, which traditionally had been set at 26 days prior to the end of the regular season, also remains on the table. The players have proposed moving the deadline back one week while the league has proposed setting it back one week earlier than that.

With the introduction of a hard cap, not all that many players will be moving anymore at the deadline. Of course, there’ll be enough movement under duress this summer to make up for that.